Ron4RNevada
New member
150109 – 4R Trek 266 The Over the Hill Gang Conquer Seven Troughs Mountains.
January 9th 2015. Joe, Paul, Reid and I (Ron) meet at Joes at 8:00am and are underway immediately towards Lovelock. A bit before 9:00 we top up the fuel tanks. The price is still going down and we pay $2.19 per gallon. We then stop at the casino restaurant and tank up on breakfast. The ownership and name of the place but the “rancher’s breakfast” is still the best.
Somewhere around 9:40 we are headed west towards Trinity Pass. At the top of the pass we turn off pavement and its four wheel drive the rest of the day. About 8 miles later out in the middle of Sage Valley we turn off the graded road onto a little used trail and change course several times until I find the trail that will take south around the south end of the Seven Troughs Range. The trail runs through a mix of rock, gravel and sand for about seven miles to the end of the range. To the east is the Trinity Range and we have dropped about 1000 feet coming out onto Granite Springs Valley and the Blue Wing Flat playa. For the next nine miles heading north again we are driving in sand.
To the west we can see the Sahwave Range and the Blue Wing Mountains. The wildlife so far is a couple of donkeys we could see in the far distance. The traction is pretty good in the sand as it had snowed last week and there is still some moisture in the ground. Eventually we reach the east-west road at the corral just west of Porter Springs. After a short chat with a couple guys in an ex game warden Chevy we turn east and after a mile turn into Porter Springs.
The springs are still amazing; the ponds are full and the water running into them is still on the order maybe 30 gallons a minute after almost four years of drought. Two of the cabins are still standing; one coyote hide is hanging on the fence; a pleasant place. We hang around maybe a half hour and then head east again over the only pass through the Seven Troughs Range. I still find it hard to believe that it took the searchers four days to find the family that overturned the Jeep last winter.
Coming back down onto Sage Valley we turn north to climb up the spine of the Seven Troughs Range. We pass the Portland Mines and the Fairview Mines, The trail is steep and in spots a bit muddy with snow melt. We do fine though as both the Dodge and the Toyota are sporting brand new ten ply off road tires. The Dodge on BFG T/A KOs and the Toyota on Toyo Open Country M/Ts. With only one wrong turn we reach the top at the Signal Peak Pass (about 6500 feet).
Last time I was here we could not go down the other side into Seven Troughs Valley as the shelf road was covered in deep snow. This time we luck out as most of the snow is gone and the trail is only a bit muddy. All the way down the tires are tossing big globs of firm sticky mud into the wheel wells. By the way: we have seen a couple more donkeys on the way to the top and one more on the way down into the Seven Troughs Mining area. We take another walk around break at Seven Troughs. Its now about 2:30 so rather than visiting a couple ghost towns to the north I decide we’ll just go to Tunnel Camp and then head home.
Coming out on the flat passing the safe sitting in the middle of the wash, the site of the town of Mazuma which was totally destroyed by a flood in 1910, we turn south and make the short run to Tunnel Camp. Tunnel Camp still has a few cabins surviving; the brick power house; one five stamp gold mill and several ore chutes. Last time here there were still the remains of four old trucks; those are now gone. A few pictures and we head east again across the valley to Trinity Pass and then on to Lovelock. We pull into Fernley again about 4:30. It has been a wonderful day with the “Over the Hill Gang”.
Running south in Sage Valley - Sahwave Range in Distance
South end of Seven Troughs Range - Making the turn near Blue Wing Flat
Three of the gang - The four of us range in age from 74 to 83 - 315 years of combined desert experience
Porter Springs
Ready for anything
Portland Mines
Near Fairview Mines
Reids Dodge at bottom of photo
Signal Peak
Shelf road
donkeys
Yours Truely
Incidentally: This is my third trek in the SR5. I've had it exactly one month today. Great truck! With the Toyo 10 ply M/Ts it's the equal of my former 2004 LR Discovery off road (except for ground clearance). I got 13.5mpg while in 4wd in the sand, rocks and mountain climbing. For the whole day including the highway back to Fernley the total was 16.0 mpg.
BTW: This is northern Nevada. Altitudes throughout the day 4100 to 7000 feet. Air temperature between 20F and 46F; humidity about 20%
January 9th 2015. Joe, Paul, Reid and I (Ron) meet at Joes at 8:00am and are underway immediately towards Lovelock. A bit before 9:00 we top up the fuel tanks. The price is still going down and we pay $2.19 per gallon. We then stop at the casino restaurant and tank up on breakfast. The ownership and name of the place but the “rancher’s breakfast” is still the best.
Somewhere around 9:40 we are headed west towards Trinity Pass. At the top of the pass we turn off pavement and its four wheel drive the rest of the day. About 8 miles later out in the middle of Sage Valley we turn off the graded road onto a little used trail and change course several times until I find the trail that will take south around the south end of the Seven Troughs Range. The trail runs through a mix of rock, gravel and sand for about seven miles to the end of the range. To the east is the Trinity Range and we have dropped about 1000 feet coming out onto Granite Springs Valley and the Blue Wing Flat playa. For the next nine miles heading north again we are driving in sand.
To the west we can see the Sahwave Range and the Blue Wing Mountains. The wildlife so far is a couple of donkeys we could see in the far distance. The traction is pretty good in the sand as it had snowed last week and there is still some moisture in the ground. Eventually we reach the east-west road at the corral just west of Porter Springs. After a short chat with a couple guys in an ex game warden Chevy we turn east and after a mile turn into Porter Springs.
The springs are still amazing; the ponds are full and the water running into them is still on the order maybe 30 gallons a minute after almost four years of drought. Two of the cabins are still standing; one coyote hide is hanging on the fence; a pleasant place. We hang around maybe a half hour and then head east again over the only pass through the Seven Troughs Range. I still find it hard to believe that it took the searchers four days to find the family that overturned the Jeep last winter.
Coming back down onto Sage Valley we turn north to climb up the spine of the Seven Troughs Range. We pass the Portland Mines and the Fairview Mines, The trail is steep and in spots a bit muddy with snow melt. We do fine though as both the Dodge and the Toyota are sporting brand new ten ply off road tires. The Dodge on BFG T/A KOs and the Toyota on Toyo Open Country M/Ts. With only one wrong turn we reach the top at the Signal Peak Pass (about 6500 feet).
Last time I was here we could not go down the other side into Seven Troughs Valley as the shelf road was covered in deep snow. This time we luck out as most of the snow is gone and the trail is only a bit muddy. All the way down the tires are tossing big globs of firm sticky mud into the wheel wells. By the way: we have seen a couple more donkeys on the way to the top and one more on the way down into the Seven Troughs Mining area. We take another walk around break at Seven Troughs. Its now about 2:30 so rather than visiting a couple ghost towns to the north I decide we’ll just go to Tunnel Camp and then head home.
Coming out on the flat passing the safe sitting in the middle of the wash, the site of the town of Mazuma which was totally destroyed by a flood in 1910, we turn south and make the short run to Tunnel Camp. Tunnel Camp still has a few cabins surviving; the brick power house; one five stamp gold mill and several ore chutes. Last time here there were still the remains of four old trucks; those are now gone. A few pictures and we head east again across the valley to Trinity Pass and then on to Lovelock. We pull into Fernley again about 4:30. It has been a wonderful day with the “Over the Hill Gang”.
Running south in Sage Valley - Sahwave Range in Distance
South end of Seven Troughs Range - Making the turn near Blue Wing Flat
Three of the gang - The four of us range in age from 74 to 83 - 315 years of combined desert experience
Porter Springs
Ready for anything
Portland Mines
Near Fairview Mines
Reids Dodge at bottom of photo
Signal Peak
Shelf road
donkeys
Yours Truely
Incidentally: This is my third trek in the SR5. I've had it exactly one month today. Great truck! With the Toyo 10 ply M/Ts it's the equal of my former 2004 LR Discovery off road (except for ground clearance). I got 13.5mpg while in 4wd in the sand, rocks and mountain climbing. For the whole day including the highway back to Fernley the total was 16.0 mpg.
BTW: This is northern Nevada. Altitudes throughout the day 4100 to 7000 feet. Air temperature between 20F and 46F; humidity about 20%
